Canonical to roll out independent Ubuntu Certified Professional certification for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Ubuntu: Matt Asay Discusses Canonical Revenue Strategy

Frugal Tech Show: Matt Zimmerman, CTO of Canonical (Ubuntu Linux)

System76 Ships Ubuntu 10.04 Systems May 3

ZaReason Ships Ubuntu 10.04 Systems

Full Circle Magazine #36

Ubuntu-UK podcast: Bughouse Bellhops

Monthly Team Reports: April 2010

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Updates and Security

and much, much more!

General Community News

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS released

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long-Term Support). This release incorporates the Desktop Edition and the Server Edition. The Server Edition can be used on physical servers, on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), and on Amazon's EC2 public cloud. Codenamed "Lucid Lynx", 10.04 LTS continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. Also available is the Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition, which is not a long-term support release.

Read more about the features of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in the following press releases:

Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04 released!

The Ubuntu Manual Team has announced the release of "Getting Started With Ubuntu 10.04". This manual is a comprehensive beginner’s guide designed for the Ubuntu operating system. It is written under an open source license and is free for you to download, read, modify, and share. Features include:

Easy to understand - our manual has step by step instructions and is jargon-free

A picture is worth a thousand words - lots of screenshots to show you how to do tasks

All in one place - conveniently located in one file, so you don’t have to look all over the web for help

Progressive learning curve - start with the basics, and learn as you work through each chapter

Dozens of languages - translated into more than 50 languages, including localized screenshots

CC-BY-SA licensing - download, modify, reproduce and share as much as you like

No cost - our documents are all written by Ubuntu community members and there is no charge to use them

Printer friendly - we have a version optimized for printing to save the trees

Troubleshooting section - to help you solve common Ubuntu problems quickly

Operation Lucid - Ubuntu in London

Chris Kenyon, Jono Kenyon, and Jane Silber embarked on a mission to spread a bit of Ubuntu love to celebrate the launch of Ubuntu 10.04 a.k.a Lucid Lynx by casting light and shadows over London.

Using one suspicious white van, two spotlights, a temperamental generator, two hi-visibility electricity board jackets (urban camouflage), one Canon Digital SLR and a clip clipboard they spread Ubuntu love at the following locations: Barbican tower, St Paul's (taken from Shakespeare tower),Tate modern, National Theatre, London Eye as well as Millbank tower.

A global menu for Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition

In his latest blog post Mark Shuttleworth writes about what Ubuntu users can expect from the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition. “In the netbook edition for 10.10, we’re going to have a single menu bar for all applications, in the panel. Our focus on netbooks has driven much of the desktop design work at Canonical. There are a number of constraints and challenges that are particular to netbooks, and often constraints can be a source of insight and inspiration. In this case, wanting to make the most of vertical space has driven the decision to embrace the single menu approach.” In the post Shuttleworth writes:

It’s all about vertical pixels

Only on the Netbook Edition UI

Innovation: combining title and menu in a single panel

Under the hood: d-bus menu transport

Shuttleworth states, “We’ve started working on this with the existing Global Menu project. While there are differences in the technical approach we want to take, that team has already identified many of the common issues, and there are great opportunities for us to collaborate. I’m looking forward to seeing the result in action in 10.10!”

Ubuntu 8.10 reaches end-of-life

Ubuntu announced its 8.10 release almost 18 months ago, on October 30, 2008. As with the earlier releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 18 months. The support period has ended as of Friday, April 30, 2010. Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 8.10. You can find out how to upgrade your system at the link below.

Ubuntu Brainstorm is a community site geared toward letting you add your ideas for Ubuntu. You can submit your own idea, or vote for or against another idea. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

LoCo News

Una Fiesta MUY Lucida…

Efrain Valles, writes about the Ubuntu-ve release party. Efrain notes “All of us who attended truly felt we are definitely part of something really important. We had the chance to network, have some beers and pizza. Some of us even brought our kids along. The place was magical, It offered us a very traditional and yet very surreal place to indulge into Ubuntu and Linux talks.”

Lucid Release Party Recap

Brandon Holtsclaw writes about the Kansas City release party, “The Kansas City Ubuntu Lucid Release Party was a great get together , it was nice seeing some other Geeks around the KC Metro area. Hopefully we'll make this a more often occurrence than once every 6 months.”

Feature Friday: the bug activity log

When you’re new to a bug report that’s already had quite a bit of activity, it can take a few minutes to get a hang of what’s been happening.

Launchpad gives you a shortcut that lets you quickly see the history of the bug: the bug activity log.

Let’s take a look at a bug I’ve been working on recently: bug 544799. While the main bug page gives you the current description, comment history and details of status changes, you can get a concise yet comprehensive overview of the bug’s history by following the See full activity log link. https://bugs.launchpad.net/malone/+bug/544799/+activity

So, when you need to get up to speed on a bug report, head for the activity log.

Direct translations imports for Ubuntu

The last few months we’ve been doing a lot of work to enable direct import of translations from different upstream VCS systems. For now, we’ve focused on getting one very important case right first (GNOME), and then we’ll extend it to supporting other upstreams as well.

How are we going to do it? First off, we’ve split it all into two separate stages:

get upstream translations into Launchpad

push upstream translations from Launchpad into Ubuntu

For some upstreams, getting them into Launchpad is trivial, but for majority of them, it means pulling from different VCS systems. Thanks to Launchpad Code and Bazaar teams, getting the code in the form of bazaar branch is not that big a deal. However, when pulling translations from a VCS instead of getting them from tarballs means one slight complication. Translation templates (POT files) won’t be there, and we’ll have to regenerate those.

Ubuntu Forums News

Tutorial of the Month

For May 2010, we'll highlight ibuclaw's (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=490875) "Howto: Sudoers Configuration". New users sometimes have difficulties to understand permissions on Linux. This guide is a very good way to start. The subject has already been covered extensively by many forums, blogs and wikis, why point out at this particular one?

Well, first because it's ibuclaw's, a dedicated moderator on ubuntu forums.

Second, it's built on user cases dedicated to walking new users through the sudoers file.

Third, it gets into some fine permissions and aliases, which make the sudoers file quite powerful.

Last but not least, even if the thread can be seen as a little old, ibuclaw will be happy to give you support.

The Planet

Jono Bacon: Thank You Everyone For Ubuntu 10.04

April 29th we released Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, available in Desktop, Server, and Netbook editions.

Lucid is a phenomenal release that has brought a new finesse and shine to what we as a community have worked together to achieve. I see this finesse executed in a fantastic array of features (which you can read about here), and underlined by an unwavering commitment to quality through the many disciplines involved in building Ubuntu. This work has not only been undertake by our development team at Canonical, but also by our passionate global Ubuntu community.

Today is a day in which everyone involved in the Ubuntu community should sit back for a moment and feel proud of our achievements. Whether you have worked on code, packaging, testing, bugs, documentation, translations, advocacy, or whatever else, your contributions have made Lucid and it’s supporting global network of community contributions what it is. Building an Operating System is a large and complex task which demands a wide variety of different skills and personalities to achieve, and I am so proud of everyone who has brought their gift to the Ubuntu table to help make Ubuntu better for everyone.

As one person riding this train, I just want to thank you to all of you for your hard work. Now it is time to celebrate!

Amber Graner: ZaReason to sponsor the Ubuntu Women World Play Day Competition

With some really awesome entries being submitted, excitement and support for encouraging girls to use Ubuntu and Open Source continues to grow. The Ubuntu Women Project is proud to announce that another sponsor for the competition has been added. In addition to 1-Dell Mini (or equivalent) computer and the Canonical SWAG Bag The Ubuntu Women Project can now offer a Terra A20 Ubuntu Computer and Flash Drive from ZaReason.

In this post Penelope Stowe writes about Ubuntu as it relates to accessibility issues. Stowe also introduces readers of planet Ubuntu to National Blogging Against Disablism Day 2010. In this post she states that she is wheelchair user and finds herself fighting for accessibility is almost a daily.

Stowe notes that when it came down to what she needed for accessibility on Ubuntu, she realized that she have no choice. She states that periodically she is unable to type. On MacOS (the other OS she uses regularly), Stowe could use a combination of MacSpeech Dictate voice recognition software and a program called Dasher which is a mouse controlled text input (not an on screen keyboard, but much more fluid and faster to use). She when started asking around for similar things on Ubuntu she got good news and bad news. The bad news was that no one seemed to have a working set-up of a voice recognition software that didn’t involve Dragon Naturally Speaking under Wine.

The good news was that Dasher is open source, has a Linux port, and is in the Ubuntu universe. However, it came with some caveats.

Stowe noted that in her experience, Ubuntu as an operating system and open source software in general has some things is needs to improve with in terms of accessibility. She isn't just point that out she is getting involved “This is why I’ve decided to put energy into getting the Accessibility Team going again. With multiple people working together to identify the main problems and either finding solutions ourselves or advocating to get others to implement solutions it should be easier to get Ubuntu to where it should be as an operating system accessible to all.”

To read the full post, and learn more about Blogging Against Disablism Day 2010: Accessibility & Ubuntu go to:

Matthew Helmke: Ubuntu Up and Running

Matthew Helmke talks about the new O'Reilly book Ubuntu Up and Running. Helmke had the privilege of being one of the tech reviewers. In this post he wanted to announce that the book was ready and invite Planet Ubuntu readers to take a look and see if the book interests them, noting that Robin Nixon is a good writer. He also mentions that it is similar in focus to another book that Helmke has contributed to heavily, The Official Ubuntu Book pointing out that the 5th Edition coming very soon. Helmke says both books are aimed at being an introduction of Ubuntu to people new to Linux. He notes that each book covers the topic differently and each has information that the other does not.

In The Press

PCLinuxOS 2010 Runs Against, But Falls Short Of Ubuntu 10.04

Phoronix's Michael Larabel knows that while a bulk of the Linux community is engaged by the release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS this week, another popular Linux distribution put out its first major update of 2010 a few days ago. PCLinuxOS, the Mandriva-based OS that is one of the top 10 most popular Linux distributions according to DistroWatch, is out with this update that bumps their kernel to Linux 2.6.32.11 while still carrying the BFS scheduler, updated NVIDIA and ATI driver support, locale improvements, and much more. Phoronix compiled a few benchmarks of PCLinuxOS 2010 compared to the latest snapshot of Ubuntu 10.04. In a number of the tests, the performance between PCLinuxOS 2010 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS were neck-and-neck, but Ubuntu did possess some strong leads in the area of OpenGL performance, PostMark, and GraphicsMagick. The only wins that PCLinuxOS had over Lucid Lynx were with Apache and NAS Parallel Benchmarks.

Discover the new features in Ubuntu 10.04, the Lucid Lynx

TuxRadar says that Ubuntu 10.04 is shaping up to be one of the most eagerly awaited (and controversial) releases in the distro's history. TuxRadar thinks that the new appearance is shiny. That's how they define Ubuntu's long hoped-for departure from the dusky brown, and it's a good look too. A livelier wallpaper, more colourful icons and a task bar with a reworked notification area are only the tip of the cosmetic changes introduced in 10.04. On the Social Networking side, Ubuntu Lucid, with Gwibber and Me Menu, offers total desktop/social network integration. What makes the Me Menu even more special is that it provides a text box that you can use to update all your configured social networking sites in one go. Although the Ubuntu One service has been on offer since Ubuntu 9.04, a more usable iteration is on offer with Lucid Lynx, and - like a lot of the new Web 2.0 stuff - it too is integrated into the Me Menu. The Software Centre, is also not a new addition to Ubuntu, is now very well polished and ready for mass adoption. Follow this link to read what else TuxRadar had to say about Ubuntu 10.04.

Did Ubuntu 10.04 Achieve Its Ten Second Boot Goal?

Michael Larabel of Phoronix recalls that Canonical expressed their plans to achieve a ten-second boot time in June of last year for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, with their reference system being a Dell Mini 9 netbook. In February, Larabel last checked on Ubuntu's boot performance and found it close, but not quite there yet, but did they end up hitting this goal for the final release of the Lucid Lynx? From Larabel's tests, not quite. With Ubuntu 9.10 the boot time for Dell Mini 9 came in at 56 seconds and with Ubuntu 10.04 it was... 19 seconds. There is still nine seconds that need to be shaved off Ubuntu's boot time for this goal to be reached. We are still several seconds off from reaching the ten-second boot-time that Canonical was hoping for with the release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx", but still the boot process is much faster than is found with Ubuntu 9.10 and older releases.

The Best Improvements in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Lifehacker's Kevin Purdy notes that Ubuntu 10.04 is now out, and there are quite a few improvements in "Lucid Lynx," a long-term support release. What's worth checking out, beyond the geeky guts? A pretty nifty social manager, a great music store, faster boot-ups, and more. Purdy gave Ubuntu One, the free, 2GB cloud syncing service included with every Ubuntu desktop, a hard time when it first launched. It was, he thought, basically a Dropbox clone that only worked on Ubuntu. With the inclusion of the Ubuntu One music store, a DRM-free MP3 market with a surprisingly robust artist roster, and an early version of contact syncing, Ubuntu One makes a lot more sense. When you buy music from the store, it's automatically synced into your Ubuntu One space, and can then be downloaded onto at least three other computers that aren't running Ubuntu One. Ubuntu 10.04 starts up at a pretty unbelievable pace, on a 2.0 GHz system with 2 GB of physical memory. If Ubuntu wants to start winning hearts and minds among the laptop, netbook, and, heck, tablet communities, super-fast startup is a good goal to have. Follow this link to read what else Purdy found interesting about Ubuntu 10.04.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS adds business and ease-of-use tools

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of Computerworld knows that Canonical has high hopes for its latest release: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long Term Support). Also known as Lucid Lynx, this new version is the one that, from many indications, the company hopes will take Ubuntu from being a fan favorite to a commercial success. Based on Vaughan-Nichols' first look at the release candidate, Canonical's hopes may be realized. Make no doubt about it, Canonical wants you, and any business you might own, to buy into Ubuntu 10.04 on the server and in the cloud. The server version, which will be available on April 29, 2010, has almost 100 open-source and proprietary application providers certifying their programs on Ubuntu Server Edition. The push to make Ubuntu easy to use is continued throughout this release. For example, Gwibber, an open-source social network client that connects with Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook, Flickr and Digg, among others, is built into the desktop. The same is true of Ubuntu's default instant-message client, Empathy. In short, Vaughan-Nichols says he can highly recommend Ubuntu 10.04 to any user, and not just to Linux users. Indeed, some hard-core Linux users might find it too easy and polished for their tastes. But for everyone else -- and anyone who just wants an easy-to-use, full-featured, secure desktop operating system -- Ubuntu 10.04 is the one for you.

Ubuntu 10.04 'Lucid Lynx' arrives on the scene

Engadget's Donald Melanson says it's been less than a year since Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" was released, but the next big version of the Linux OS has now already arrived to take its place: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx." In addition to the usual tweaks and fixes, this one promises a boot speed that is "noticeably quicker" on almost any machine (and especially on those with SSDs), along with a range of new features including a social networking-oriented "Me Menu," Ubuntu Software Centre 2.0 for easier access to new software, and a slew of new cloud-based services courtesy of Ubuntu One -- not to mention the Ubuntu One music store. The release also marks the first time that GIMP doesn't come pre-installed (you get F-Spot instead), and it is naturally complemented by Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition, which promises even faster boot speeds and other optimizations. Ready to make the jump? The LTS version is out! Get it at http://www.ubuntu.com/

Ubuntu's Linux OS -- Mac OS X's Doppelganger?

Paul Rubens or ServerWatch thinks that Apple is fading from relevance in the computing space as it turns its attention toward phones, Web tablets and other consumer gadgets. Its server products are a joke, and its desktop and laptop machines are rapidly losing their allure: Selling style over substance works only as long as you remain stylish, but on that front Apple has become tired, boring and predictable. But if you're an old-style Apple fan then there's no need to fret. Apple may not "get" it anymore, but it seems Canonical does. Canonical is the open source software company behind Ubuntu, a Linux distro with a powerful server OS. It's a bit like OS X Server, but more than a handful of people actually use Ubuntu Server Edition, and Canonical still actively develops and updates it with a new release every six months. Ubuntu also has editions for desktops, laptops and netbooks, which it updates regularly as clockwork every half year. In the past 12 months this product has evolved into something that's powerful, easy to use, and -- something most Apple fans are loath to admit -- far more stylish than Snow Leopard. But perhaps that's not surprising, really, when you consider that Apple is far too busy with its iPhoneOS to bother much about updating OS X. Innovative, forward-looking, stylish and fun: Basically, Ubuntu is rapidly becoming everything that OS X might have been if Apple hadn't decided to turn its back on it and become fixated with iPhoneOS. Everything, that is, except overpriced and closed.

Why Ubuntu excites me more than Windows or Macintosh

After a lifetime of high-tech disappointment, Times Online's Hugo Rifkind has found true love, in Ubuntu Linux. Rifkind begins the article by saying, "You know that thing that happens on your computer, when you are using Windows? When you ask it to do something, and it thinks about it, and then it keeps thinking, and then you go off and make a cup of tea, and it’s still thinking, and you want to head-butt the wall, again and again, until gets all smeared and red and bloody and bits of your brain are raining down on to your shoes? Yes? Well, there’s a way to stop that happening. Stop using Windows. Use Ubuntu instead." The latest version of Ubuntu was released April 29th, and Rifkind admits that he's actually quite excited. "If you work on a desk, these are the environs are our worlds. Mine used to be Windows, and now it isn’t. And, as a result my life is better. Sad, but true." Rifkind says he first tried Linux about five years ago, and it was a disaster, for all the reasons that Ubuntu is wonderful. With Ubuntu Rifkind finally feels that there is a version of Linux that was actually pleasant to use. "My Ubuntu setup is faster than a PC and prettier than a Mac. But best of all, when you ask it to do something, it does it." Follow this link to read what else Rifkind had to say about his switch to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 10.04 arrives with extended support (and less brown)

Ryan Paul of ARS Technica reports that Canonical has announced the official release of Ubuntu 10.04, codenamed Lucid Lynx. After six months of development, the stealthy cat has emerged from the jungle and is ready to leap onto users' desktops. The new version of the popular Linux distribution delivers a visual refresh, updated software, and a number of noteworthy new features. Ubuntu 10.04 is a long-term support (LTS) release, which means that its users will receive package updates for an extended period of time. Typical Ubuntu versions get 18 months of updates, but LTS releases are supported for three years on desktop computers and five years on servers. Another significant characteristic of LTS releases is that they are built with a stronger emphasis on stability. Instead of loading in a pile of experimental new features, the developers focus on quality control and aim to make the software more reliable. Due to the extended support cycle and higher standard of robustness, LTS releases tend to be more appealing to business users and hardware makers. True to the LTS label, Lucid seems relatively robust. Ubuntu 10.04 is available for download from the Ubuntu website.

Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx: A (free) Mactastic experience

The Register's Scott Gilbertson thinks that Ubuntu 10.04, officially available as of Thursday, is an important update for this popular Linux distro. It's a Long-Term Support (LTS) release - the first since 8.04 two years ago - and it wraps social network with media capabilities and a brace of online services in a brand new look. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth wants Ubuntu to beat Apple's OS X on features and interface polish. While Lucid Lynx still has some rough edges, this release is a huge leap for UI design in Linux and puts Ubuntu well on its way to Shuttleworth's goal. These changes give Ubuntu a nice, more polished look. Most of the GNOME panel widgets look much nicer in this theme, and the icon set is considerably better than what we saw in the beta. But the changes in Ubuntu 10.04 aren't just skin deep. There are quite a few new applications, features, and services that make Ubuntu seem more like a consumer-friendly operating system like OS X than the Linux of the command line loving past. Overall, Ubuntu 10.04 is certainly one of the most polished looking Linux distros on the market. With built-in cloud syncing, a new music store and quick access to social networks, Ubuntu is clearly aiming at the mainstream audience and you can expect that trend to continue.

In The Blogosphere

Ubuntu Manual reaches 20,000 downloads on first day

"Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04," which was released about 18 hours before Lucid, had 20,000 downloads in the first 24 hours. The team is really, really pleased with this result and I must admit we never anticipated such a great number of downloads. Thanks a lot to everyone who has helped us! It is hoped that that number continues to increase as new versions are released in different languages over the next few weeks.

Shuttleworth Clears Ubuntu 10.04 for Liftoff

It’s official: Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Support arrives April 29, and this particular blogger was privy to the press conference about it. Canonical Chairman Mark Shuttleworth and CEO Jane Silber discussed the plans and progress of new operating system, and then fielded some Q and A. The key news: More than 80 ISV's are supporting Ubuntu. CEO Jane Silber noted that this is the highest amount of ISV's ever signed on to support Ubuntu, and they’re committed to an ongoing relationship where Ubuntu can continue to be a distribution channel for software. During the press conference, Mark Shuttleworth spoke about the new design featured in 10.04. He also commented on how he wanted Ubuntu to be ‘light-ware’ or lightweight software that didn’t feel weighed down or bloated.

My Thoughts on Ubuntu 10.04

Ubuntu 10.04 is yet again an excellent release. This release is an Long-Term Support version (LTS) which has an aim to be a very stable release, and in most cases it does. With an aim to be stable release does not mean lack of features, it has tons of great additions. Ubuntu 10.04 is an excellent release. Many improvements to the Ubuntu desktop make it the best-looking OS out. The OS is more user-centric than ever before, with applications and social networking features which will appeal to most modern day computer users. There are now ever more reasons to move away from Windows and Mac OS X! Follow the link below to read more details of this bloggers thoughts on Ubuntu 10.01.

Ubuntu 10.04: Where Ubuntu goes from here

Steven Vaughan-Nichols of ComputerWorld.com writes in his blog that as a Linux expert, 10.04 a little too simple for his personal tastes, but it's the best beginner Linux out of the box he's ever seen. Couple this with the almost 100 organizations that have signaled their intent to certify applications, and you don't have just a new Ubuntu release, but the announcement of a major effort by Canonical and its partners to make Ubuntu a worthy competitor to Red Hat and Novell in the enterprise space.

Ubuntu wants Adobe, even if Apple doesn't

Canonical marketing manager Gerry Carr told Steven Vaughan-Nichols that "in a recent survey we did of the Ubuntu User base where we got 32,000 plus responses, Adobe Photoshop as a potential application for Ubuntu got a 3.52 rating out of 5 being the second most popular potential app after Skype. We've been very pleased with the quality of Flash on Linux in recent months, and are very happy to make it available direct to users through the partner repositories. Our relationship with Adobe is getting better and broader."

Pleasant Surprises with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Release Candidate

Jamie of ZDNET blogs had a couple of very pleasant surprises with the Netbook Remix of the Lucid Release Candidate. At first, he was going to load the full version on his beloved little HP 2133 Mini-Note, but he realized that he only had the 64-bit full version, and the 32-bit Netbook Remix. So he thought what the heck, and give it a try. When he had tried it before on the 2133 it was painfully slow to use, because of the limited Chrome9 video driver. This time, though, he could see as soon as he booted the Live USB that it was a lot better. It loaded without any trouble at all, and runs very nicely, with none of the awful 5-10 second delay as icons changed that it had before.

In Other News

Canonical Announces

On April 27th Canonical Ltd. announced the feature sets for its newest LTS release, Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx. LTS versions of Ubuntu offer 3 years of security with the desktop version, and 5 years of support with the server version. You can read Canonical's announcement features here:

Canonical also announced strong ISV and Open Source ecosystem support for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Jane Silber, CEO, Canonical said: "A strong and varied ISV ecosystem is critical for Ubuntu to thrive and grow both on user's desktops and in the world's data centres. We expected Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to be popular with existing and prospective software partners, but response is fantastic. Users considering switching to Ubuntu or upgrading to 10.04 LTS will be encouraged by this industry support and reassured that they can use many of their favourite applications on what we are sure will become their favourite operating system."

Anup Murarka, director for Technology Strategy and Partner Development, Flash Platform, Adobe tells us: ""Ubuntu's user base continues to grow rapidly and it is important to Adobe® that Ubuntu users are able to enjoy the full Adobe Flash® experience. We are working with Ubuntu and other partners to enable certification of Flash Player 10.1 for Linux on the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS release, an exciting release for Linux-based desktops and devices.”

Barry Crist, CEO, Likewise stated: “Both the Likewise Open project and our enterprise business are growing exponentially and a key catalyst is our relationship with Ubuntu and its vibrant user community. By enabling Ubuntu 10.04 LTS users to quickly and easily integrate with networks on both desktops and servers, we support Ubuntu adoption in the enterprise.”

"Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is already seeing considerable adoption across a range of industries as customers discover the benefits of private and hybrid cloud computing," said Marten Mickos CEO, Eucalyptus. "As an LTS, the new Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud with Eucalyptus at its core will see this adoption accelerate.”

And finally: "Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution especially for desktop users and that makes it critical to our Linux support," said Geoff Perlman, founder and CEO, REAL Software, makers of REAL Studio for Linux. "I'm confident that our Linux users will be supporting this important release for the software they have built with our development tool, REAL Studio."

Canonical to roll out independent Ubuntu Certified Professional certification for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

London, 22 April 2010: Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, today announced that it will provide its own fully-independent certification for junior-level system administrators. This course, running from June 2010 to the new exam available in October 2010. From an Ubuntu press release, "Over its four year lifespan the certification has proven to be popular with many students, and there was consistent demand for an ‘Ubuntu-only’ certification with examination specific to the distribution." This is a little different than what was previously offered through the Linux Professional Institute as it no longer requires students to pass the LPIC-1 course, first. No prior Linux experience is necessary, but being a sysadmin with IT training and experience is a must. The price for the exam is not yet finalized, but should be between $300 and $350.

Ubuntu: Matt Asay Discusses Canonical Revenue Strategy

Joe Panettieri, of WorksWithU, held a discussion with Matt Asay, the Canonical Chief Operating Officer. Their discussion centered on the revenue stream and where Canonical expects to pick up more money in the future. Multiple sources exist, including:

Ubuntu desktop and server support

Subscription revenue from Landscape, a remote management tool for Ubuntu. Landscape is available as both as SaaS and on-premises solution

Subscription revenue from Ubuntu One, the online storage and file sharing system

Revenues from the new Ubuntu One Music Store

Consulting revenues from multiple projects, including Canonical’s decision to help Google with Chrome OS

Some new opportunities around Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud

According to Matt, the cloud was made for Ubuntu: “On the desktop and the server some people have been conditioned not to pay. . . . People are conditioned to pay in the cloud.” And within a few months there will be more subscription services available in the cloud.

Frugal Tech Show: Matt Zimmerman, CTO of Canonical (Ubuntu Linux)

Frugal Networker Ken Hess and Jason Perlow interview Matt Zimmerman, Chief Technology Officer of Canonical Ltd, the company which produces the Ubuntu Linux distribution. They talk about Canonical’s upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS release for Desktop and Server, and the company’s near term goals for 2010 and 2011.

System76 Ships Ubuntu 10.04 Systems May 3

Joe Panettieri, of WorksWithU, recently held an email interview with System76 President Carl Richell. Among the things covered was that System76 will be releasing computers loaded with Ubuntu 10.04 starting May 3rd. Also, server sales are up, 83% for unit sales with gross server sales up 91%. Mr. Richell also praised Ubuntu's new look and the several new features that have been added or improved. Read more at the link.

ZaReason Ships Ubuntu 10.04 Systems

Joe Panettieri, of WorksWithU, held an email exchange with ZaReason's CEO Cathy Malmrose and CTO Earl Malmrose. A good portion of their revenue comes from Long Term Support (LTS) customers, and with the improvements 10.04 has over 8.04 they predict very happy customers. They will be shipping on the day of the 10.04 launch. Though their server business is good, ZaReason tends to concentrate on the consumer market and would, someday, like to see one of their laptops in Costco. Read more at the link.

Select a Chair for the next meeting

IRC Council

jussi01 to serve as IRCC chairman per the requirement in the IRCC Charter

Request: Make the Kubuntu-council team ops for all Kubuntu channels

Agree to add the Kubuntu Council team as an admin of all the Kubuntu channel op teams on LP. Note which members of the council already have OP access and in which channels. Add all Kubuntu Council members as OPs in the channels (+votiArf). Transition to using the script to manage this once it is done.

jussi01 will make the necessary changes on LP and on IRC

""IRC Council meeting, 25 April 2010""

New Topic: #ubuntu-release-party access list

IDEA received from Ikonia: I would suggest adding the core channel operators to the list and removing the membership cloak access

New Topic: Consider deactivating/re-purposing the ~ubuntu-irc team on launchpad

IDEA received from Nhandler: As for ~ubuntu-irc, I haven't seen any good ideas on how to re-purpose it right now, so I would propose removing all members, making it restricted, and adjusting the description to "disable" it for now

VOTE: Change the description of ~ubuntu-irc to reflect its current state of disuse, think about the future use of it.

Final result is 3 for, 0 against. 0 abstained. Total: 3

New Topic: Create policy on external logging of channels (ircanswers.com)

VOTE: Public log bots be allowed with a set of conditions and list of bots documented on a wiki page.

Ubuntu Chicago LoCo Team

Order a box of Lucid CDs from shipit to give away at our upcoming events

Florida LoCo Team

April 6th Meeting, we decided officially to merge back to only the standards lists.ubuntu.com mailing list. For several years now we have been using both Launchpad ML and the Standard List. So far we have set the Standard List as default, and mailed the team asking those that are on the LP ML only to move themselves over to the Standard List. June 1st is the target date, and after that the ML admin/moderator will move the rest over manually.

April 20th, Announced the Lucid Release Party, which was hosted at the Pizza Gallery Viera/Melbourne Area. Discussed adding events to the LoCo Directory, which is an amazing resource for LoCo Teams. http://loco.ubuntu.com

The Lucid Release Party for Viera/Melbourne Area took place on the evening of the 29th in the Avenues Plaza Viera. Pizza Gallery was a dynamite place to hold this. We had 12 attendees, and everyone had a great time. 1 upgrade and 2 installs were performed. We discussed the changes found within Lucid. Everyone was commenting on the peppiness of Lucid, and really enjoyed the new release! Thanks to all the developers and contributors for all of your hard work!!

Held the first regular meeting in a while, meeting covered, design for the team, redesign for the website, Colaboration for FLISOL and more, you can check minutes here. (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ VenezuelaTeam/MinutasReuniones/20100421 )

Ubuntu - Get Involved

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate